


She's Somebody's Hero

by Beth_Mac



Series: Somebody's Hero [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gift Fic, Mother's Day, Parent Phil Coulson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 04:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10914144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Mac/pseuds/Beth_Mac
Summary: Because Audrey Nathan fell in love with Phil Coulson, and things are just a little different.Or: The Heroes of Olympus/Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. crossover you didn't know you wanted.





	She's Somebody's Hero

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BairnSidhe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BairnSidhe/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Bodies in Time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7970908) by [BairnSidhe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BairnSidhe/pseuds/BairnSidhe). 
  * Inspired by [Agent Valdez](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/290988) by BabyBird101. 



> I'm sorry this is late, B. I meant to get it done by midnight your time, but here, have a late Mother's Day fic, O beloved Fan-Mom.
> 
> 10 May 2018: All right, people, this has been EDITED. A few sentences have been added in June of 2010, a few paragraphs in the summers of 2011 and 2012 have been rewritten, and the ending has been altered. With the sequel fast approaching (tentative post date is May 24th; it's now closing in on 15,000 words and the limit of my patience), I decided to go back and fix some things that have been bugging me for months, in order to bring this fic in line with what I currently have sketched out for this 'verse and lay the groundwork for some plotting and scheming that I've been doing. THESE CHANGES MAKE NO REFERENCE TO AND HAVE NO SPOILERS FOR THE EVENTS OF 'INFINITY WAR.'
> 
> (Also, quick note: In the second-to-last scene, the last one with actual dialogue, Audrey has only the barest idea what's going on. As a result, she becomes a bit of an unreliable narrator. This will be cleared up when the next fic in the series, which is from Leo's POV, is posted.)

**2008**

It's a few hours later when Agent Coulson asks her on a date, prompting wolf-whistles from the agents within earshot. "Ignore them," he says, offering her his coat. She takes it, still dazed from everything that's happened. 

Marcus is _gone,_ Audrey realizes, and it's enough to make her giddy with relief, but she shakes her head. Some things are constant, and she's still level-headed enough to know going on a date right now is a Bad Idea. _Maybe that old middle-school nickname is right,_ she thinks. _Maybe I really am Audrey the Bore._

Agent Coulson takes the rejection with grace and offers her his number instead. _Fair is fair,_ she thinks, and rattles hers off as well. 

A short, East Asian woman comes up to Agent Coulson and quirks a smile at Audrey. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Nathan," she says, shaking her hand before turning to Agent Coulson. "I'm sorry to interrupt your... moment—" she smirks "—but we're getting ready to go." 

"Thank you, Agent May," Agent Coulson says. "If you need anything, Miss Nathan, call me." 

The two agents turn away and leave her standing on the steps of her apartment building. Two vans roar off. One is taking Marcus Daniels to prison, and that's all she cares about, she tells herself. She pretends that she believes it.

* * *

He texts her three days later. Nothing major—just a simple, _How are you?_ As soon as she sees it, she texts him back, still wringing the shower-water out of her hair. _Doing better. How's work?_

He sends her a picture of a stuffed giraffe on the windowsill of someone's office. _Sitwell may actually have a sense of humor. That or someone's messing with him._

Audrey bites back a laugh. _I think his sense of humor left with his hair,_ she replies, remembering the stern, humorless agent who had kept glaring at her through his glasses. 

_You're probably right,_ Agent Coulson quips, and leaves it at that. 

It becomes a tradition—they text each other almost every day, and they swap off who calls who on Tuesdays. Phil (and when did she start thinking of him as _Phil?)_ gets a new phone just for talking to her. She complains about the symphony's schedule and the perfectionist conductor, and she laments one Tuesday that if she didn't love the cello so much she would quit. 

Phil offers her a few suggestions and changes the subject. 

He complains about his coworkers—nothing important, nothing that could be used to hurt SHIELD or its agents—and sends her pictures of the stuffed animals that are slowly taking over Sitwell's office, and a video of his inevitable meltdown. (Sitwell is suspended for two weeks without pay pending a full psychological evaluation. Audrey gets the impression that SHIELD psych evals—"Look, Phil, I'm picking up the lingo!" "Please never use that word again."—are universally dreaded, though Phil assures her that they aren't that bad.) 

Three weeks later, she asks him out, and he accepts.

* * *

The date falls through twice and gets rescheduled twice. They finally meet at a fairly nice Chinese restaurant in downtown D.C. 

"This is nice," Phil says over his lo mein. 

Audrey hums in agreement, busy shoveling rice into her mouth. The awkward silence stretches out, until she gives in and starts rambling about the latest stunts the tubas have pulled. That bland agent-face crinkles in all the right places while she tells him about exactly _how_ Hardison on third saxophone broke his reed. She asks after his coworkers, after May and Sitwell and Barton and Romanoff, who he's told her about but she's never met. He tells her that May's requested a transfer to Administration ("An op in the Middle East went bad," he says, and doesn't elaborate. "She hasn't been sleeping well," and oh God, there are only a few things _that_ could mean), that Sitwell is still annoyingly incompetent ("Seriously, how is he this high-ranking and still dumb as a rock?"), and that Barton and Romanoff are just plain annoying. ("Did I ever tell you what happened when he recruited her? Remind me to tell you when we're not in public."). 

Inevitably, current events come up. "You're the ones leading the search for Tony Stark, right?" she remarks quietly, stirring more sugar into her tea. 

Phil chokes. Thankfully he's just taken a sip, not a bite, so nothing gets stuck in his throat and all he sprays is water, and even that doesn't go far. "How did you know about that?" 

Audrey shrugs. "He contracts for SHIELD, doesn't he?" she asks. "You don't want to lose those weapons." 

The look Phil gives her is... surprised, and a bit suspicious, but not shocked. "You _are_ just a cellist, right?" 

"I nearly majored in psychology," she confesses, and he throws his head back and laughs.

* * *

_How's the babysitting going?_ she teases him one night. _What's Stark really like?_

 _Highly annoying,_ he replies, and she pictures his normal poker face pinching in frustration. It's the expression Clint calls "Agent-Face Number Three: Goddammit, Barton," because he's usually the one who inspires it. _And no, I will not check to see if he has a six-pack._

 _You're no fun,_ she texts back, smiling. 

_I'm never any fun._

_Ooh, does Pepper Potts have a six-pack?_

_I thought your crush was on Stark._

_It still is. But PEPPER POTTS._

_Agreed. I'll ask._

Five minutes later he sends her a picture of Pepper Potts's flabbergasted face. _I told her my girlfriend wanted to know if she worked out. And that you wanted pictures._

_Oh, so I'm your girlfriend now?_

He doesn't dignify that with a response, but she imagines him smiling. 

**2009**

He finally takes her back to his place, a nice apartment that's one bus transfer away from the Triskelion. It's a bit large for a bachelor living alone, she notices, and says as much. Phil purses his lips and scratches the back of his neck. "Um, about that..." 

"Oh, _please_ don't tell me you're married," she complains immediately, because this is a good thing she's found and she doesn't want to give it up, not yet. 

He blushes. "Not... exactly." 

"Girlfriend?" 

"Leo, you can come in now," he calls to the other room. 

A head pokes around the door, and what is either a short teenager or the _tallest_ Santa's elf Audrey's ever seen asks, "What's up, A. C.?" 

"Leo, this is Audrey, my girlfriend," Phil tells him. "Audrey, meet Leo. My son." 

Audrey's surprise must show on her face because Leo smiles crookedly and says, "I'm adopted. Obviously." He slouches into the room, and Audrey adds a point in favor of "tall Santa's elf" when she sees the slight point to his ears and the grease stains on his shirt. A slightly taller young woman follows him in, her two long braids framing a face that's only three shades lighter than Leo's. She isn't as grease-stained as he is, but her eyes have the same spark. "This is Piper. She's my best friend," he adds proudly, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. 

Piper comes over to Audrey and holds out her hand. "Piper McLean. It's nice to finally meet you. A. C. talks about you _all_ the time," she informs her. "It gets a bit annoying, but—" she lowers her voice conspiratorially "—I think he's in _love."_

"A. C.?" Audrey asks, because she's not going anywhere near that statement with a ten-foot pole. 

"It's short for Agent Coulson," Leo explains, interrupting his own conversation with Phil. "I didn't want to call him Dad or Phil when we met, so we compromised." 

"So how did you meet?" She's genuinely curious, but she also wants more distance from what Piper said. Phil launches into an (edited heavily, she can tell) account of just what he was doing in Houston on a rainy day three years ago, with Leo adding his own commentary. 

"Best. Birthday. Present. _Ever,"_ Leo declares when Phil mentions adopting him. Phil ruffles his hair fondly, and Leo leans into the touch. 

Piper and her father actually live in California—apparently he's an up-and-coming actor, and that mix of Southern drawl and West Coast twang Audrey heard in Piper's accent makes a lot more sense now—but she's spending spring break visiting Leo, and ostensibly checking out her next boarding school, because that's what her dad does with her instead of actually raising her. "I literally only met Leo because Dad was ignoring me," Piper recounts. "I got tired of trying to get his attention, so I wandered off because if that didn't work nothing would, and I decided that if Dad wasn't going to go get ice cream with me then I'd go get it myself." 

"Yeah, and A. C. and I just _happened_ to be at the same store Piper walked into," Leo adds. 

They were born two days apart, Audrey learns—Leo in Houston and Piper just outside of Tulsa—and speak five languages between them, six if Morse code was included. Piper is older, as she reminds Leo frequently. Just as frequently, Leo interjects, "By thirty-six hours!" Every time, this starts an argument; every time, Phil breaks it up, smiling fondly. 

"Oh, and by the way—if you break his heart, I'm breaking your kneecaps." Leo makes the "I'm watching you" gesture. 

Piper rolls her eyes. "Come on, L. Let's get back to building." She winks. "We'll leave A. C. and his girlfriend alone." 

Leo jumps up. "Sure thing, Princess!" He grabs her hand and dashes away. "Science awaits!" 

"Don't blow anything up!" Phil calls after them, with "We won't!" drifting in from Leo's bedroom. 

Phil shakes his head. "Somehow, I don't believe them."

* * *

Two months after meeting the kids, Audrey's lease ends and she decides not to renew it, so she moves in with Phil instead, to everyone's delight—or at least that of the few who know about their relationship. 

Leo's glee runs out three days later when he walks in on Phil and Audrey making out on the couch. His loud "NOPE!" is meant to break the moment, but they just grin and go back to trying to get each other's clothes off without separating their lips.

* * *

Audrey laughed when Phil told her that SHIELD has its own high school for the children of agents—well, "high school" is a loose term, she thinks, since it runs from age twelve to age sixteen—but right now Leo is running around trying to find everything that he still needs to pack for the first week of school, and Piper must have hidden some of it, because she's sitting and laughing on one of the three suitcases she brought from California. Her father's not here because he had an important photo shoot, Piper had told them, which only increases Audrey's already-strong desire to punch him. 

The local campus of SHIELD's general academy—known as "D. C. Junior" to students and teachers alike—is one of several around the country, which explains the small class sizes. It's a good school, Phil keeps reassuring her, especially for kids who are planning on being agents themselves, like Leo and Piper are. Even so, she worries all morning, never more than when she hugs the kids and kisses Phil goodbye to a chorus of "Ewwww!" 

"Be brave, okay?" she tells the two of them, somehow keeping her voice from cracking. "Brush and floss, get lots of sleep, don't break too many bones—" 

"Don't skip meals and call every Tuesday," they recite, grinning. 

"And come home every weekend," Audrey finishes. 

"Don't worry," Phil says, once the kids are out the door. "They'll be fine." He gives her one last kiss and follows them out, ready to dictate who gets shotgun.

* * *

Phil comes home three hours later, explaining that the tour of the school ran a bit long, so the New Student Orientation got out late. He doesn't get to finish before Audrey is kissing him. 

She pulls back, smiling wickedly, all her worry forgotten. "So," she teases, "now that we have the place to ourselves..." 

"Oh, really." Phil smiles licentiously and moves closer, shedding his jacket and tie on top of his shoes. "Is there anything in particular that you would like to do?" He accentuates the words while kissing her knuckles, forcing a giggle out of her. 

"Oh, I can think of a _few_ things..." Audrey says with a grin, and pulls him into their bedroom. 

**2010**

Tony Stark takes one look at Leo and Piper and immediately decides to adopt them, over Phil's protests. Audrey is sure that nothing good can come of this. (She's mostly right.) 

Tony and Leo disappear into the lab for hours on end, only coming out when they're reminded to eat. Piper and Pepper—who immediately start calling each "Pip" and "Pep," to their amusement alone—talk business and politics and beating everyone's expectations. Piper asks Tony for a ride in the Iron Man suit, which he refuses, but he decides to make her a suit of her own, over both Phil and Audrey's protests. Leo becomes fast friends with Tony's AI and promises to visit the mansion as often as possible. Instead, Tony makes both of them earbuds so they can talk to JARVIS at all times. The kids start wearing their earbuds everywhere they can, over Audrey's protests.

* * *

"Oh, come _on,"_ Leo complains after walking in on one too many makeout sessions. "Just because my parents are having sex, that doesn't mean you need to remind me!" he yells while backing out of the room. 

With the mood so effectively broken, Audrey stares after him. "He called me his parent," she murmurs, oddly content with the idea. 

"Are you happy he did?" Phil asks. 

She bites her lip, still staring off into space. "Yeah. Yeah, I am." 

"Then why don't we make it official?" 

Startled, she turns to look where Phil was sitting, but he isn't there anymore. He's kneeling on the floor now, and... _Holy shit, is that—_

"Audrey Lianne Nathan, will you marry me?" 

Audrey screeches incomprehensibly and flings herself down beside him, trying to kiss every single square inch of his face. "Yes, yes, _YES!"_ she sobs. They're hugging so tightly that he can barely get the ring on her finger, and Leo records the entire thing, because of _course_ he and Phil planned this.

(Not long after this, Leo's biological grandfather forwards a letter from a relative in Mexico, inviting him to come visit. Leo takes Piper with him. They come home three days early, looking exhausted, terrified, and covered in dirt, like they'd just had a building dropped on them. They refuse to talk about what happened. Audrey can't help but worry.)

* * *

It's a small wedding, with Leo as the best man and Piper as the maid of honor. Clint and Natasha round out the wedding party, and Audrey's mother remains stoic as she walks her down the aisle. (Audrey is proud that she only trips twice in her high heels. Pepper is miffed that the bride decided not to borrow her Louboutins.)

Phil's side of the aisle is represented almost entirely by SHIELD agents (and it's only "almost" because Clint's wife and kids arrive early and separately; Audrey is reassured by how carefully agents' family members are protected); he's told her Leo is his only living family, so she isn't surprised. For her part, Audrey invites several family members along with some people from the orchestra, only a few of whom show up. They'd both decided not to invite Tony and Pepper, if only for the attention they'd attract (also because Audrey doesn't trust Tony not to get rip-roaringly drunk at the reception and pull a repeat of that birthday party Audrey's heard so much about). Audrey's three living grandparents sob their hearts out while her brother glares daggers at Phil, silently giving him the same threat Leo gave her all those months ago. They both relax when Phil nods. 

Maria and Melinda more than make up for Tony's absence, though, getting rip-roaringly drunk in his stead and telling embarrassing stories about Phil's days as a junior agent while Phil facepalms. Agents drift in and out of the reception. She's never met most of them, but if Phil trusts them, then so does Audrey, and the agents in the know still number less than two dozen. 

Nick makes sure that their marriage certificate isn't filed anywhere a hacker can find it, and neither is the record of Audrey adopting Leo. Everyone helps them move to a new apartment, one that's under Audrey's name alone. Audrey keeps using her maiden name, Phil tells his coworkers that they broke up, and life goes on.

* * *

Not long after the honeymoon, there's a little girl sleeping on the bench outside of Subway. She says her name is Helena and she doesn't want to go back to foster care, so Audrey gives her half of the sandwich and decides to let her have the rest later. She doesn't have to be home for a few hours, so she takes Helena to buy new shoes and a few new outfits, and then she calls Phil and then she calls Helena's social worker on an impulse that will probably turn out to be the best of her life. 

Helena freezes when she sees the social worker and looks up at Audrey, devastated. "You said you wouldn't make me go back," she whispers sadly. 

Audrey kneels down next to her. "I know that, sweetie," she tells her calmly. "Miss Grace is here because we want to keep you, not because we want to sent you back." 

It takes days for Lena to start believing that they really mean to adopt her, but Audrey—and Phil—are almost as amazed as she is, even when the adoption process begins. 

(Leo is mostly amused that Audrey lost her heart to this kid in the space of an afternoon, but she knows he loves being a big brother.)

* * *

Piper raps on the side of the door frame. "Hey, Audrey?" Her voice is hesitant. 

Audrey smiles up at her. "Come on in, sweetheart," she invites. 

The file folder she's carrying lands on Audrey's desk. "I've been thinking." Piper takes a deep breath. "I'm worried about Helena. No." She shakes her head. "That's not what I mean. I'm worried about _protecting_ Helena, if she's ever in danger because she's tied to SHIELD. I wanted to run this by you before I take it to A. C. and then hopefully to Director Fury, but... I think I have an idea." 

Audrey listens attentively as Piper outlines her plan: a set of off-the-books safehouses scattered around the country—and the world—anywhere there was a child associated with SHIELD; bus routes and volunteer drivers ready to pick up the kids and take them to the nearest safehouse if SHIELD was ever compromised; ways to hide the message and the activity from _anyone,_ including the government, SHIELD as a whole, and the parents themselves if need be. 

The folder is stuffed full of what Piper's gathered so far. A lot of it is private information, including names and addresses, and Audrey is suddenly very uneasy about how Piper found all of this. "What brought this on?" 

Piper looks down at the table. "Something's wrong with SHIELD," she whispers. "I've been watching and listening to everything, and I think there are people who are trying to subvert it. They're going to go after kids and spouses and friends and family and anyone they can use as leverage, and I _can't stop it,_ unless this works." 

Audrey stands up and looks her in the eye. "Go get Phil and tell him about this," she says. "Tell the Director, tell the Deputy Director, tell anyone who you think can help. Do whatever you have to in order to keep those kids safe, you hear me?"

* * *

As the year comes to a close, she has an arm slung around her husband's shoulders, their daughter nestled into her side, a pair of former assassins-for-hire on her living-room floor throwing popcorn at each other (and won't _that_ be a pain to get up later), the Deputy Director of SHIELD making Top Ramen in her kitchenette, two teenagers arguing loudly about too many topics for her to keep track of, and the Director of SHIELD sitting in her grandfather's armchair telling them equally loudly to "shut up, motherfuckers, the ball's about to drop." 

Life is good. 

**2011**

It doesn't last, because of course it doesn't. 

All of a sudden Phil gets called out of bed in the middle of the night for a briefing before being sent to the middle of nowhere, and then she turns on the news and there are _aliens_ and giant killer _robots_ in _New Mexico_ of all places, and Phil is sending her texts in all caps along the lines of, _I THINK FOSTER'S INTERN IS HITTING ON ME WHAT DO I DO_ or, _Slight cultural misunderstanding today. On a related note, how do you get glass shards out of linoleum?_

* * *

It turns out that Piper's been talking to _a lot_ of people. She's found an entire shadow world that most people don't know exist, that the rank-and-file of SHIELD doesn't know exist, and that the top agents have an uneasy truce with. Gods, psychics, shape-shifters—Piper tells her everything and swears her to secrecy. Leo and Piper start spending more and more time away from home, whenever they can slip away, meeting with new contacts. Sometimes, they bring Audrey along, and she watches as powerful men and women acquiesce to the demands of a fourteen-year-old girl. They get agreements of protection, and Piper walks away with a new safehouse and new contacts to add to the Exodus list.

Audrey doesn't even think Piper realizes what she's doing. She's not just guaranteeing her little sister's safety. She's building an army. 

SHIELD has enemies within; it's becoming clearer every day. But Audrey knows—even if no one else does—that when that enemy rears its ugly head, its match will be a teenage girl and her honorary brother.

* * *

Because this is Audrey's life and it can never be easy, a single week sees Phil getting transferred to a temporary base in New Mexico that he can't tell her about, a job offer from the Portland Symphonic Orchestra, and a positive pregnancy test. 

"You should take it," Phil tells her over Skype. Audrey's inclined to agree. The apartment is starting to feel cramped, especially when all five of them are there at once. Now, with a sixth on the way, moving sounds like a really, really good idea. 

She flies out to Portland in December for her official audition and a look at the housing market. The realtor coos over Helena, who shies away, prompting even more cooing. Leo and Piper join her during their winter break (and holy _shit_ how are they _juniors_ already?). 

They look at ten houses before they settle on one. The rest are too small, too close to the city center, too rural. 

"It's perfect," Helena muses, looking around. She's right, Audrey thinks. It might not be a picket-fence house in the suburbs, but it has three bedrooms, and a yard, and a nice neighborhood. The kids decide to stay at D. C. Junior, but they spend their spring break—which coincides nicely with Helena's—packing up the apartment and shipping everything to Portland. 

Even if Piper technically lives with her dad, Leo's room is half hers, complete with two dressers and a bunkbed. Helena gets her own room, at least until the baby is old enough for an actual bed. 

It's not home yet, not without Phil. But it will be. 

**2012**

Not three weeks after they finish moving, Robin from across the street knocks on the door and tells her to turn on the news. 

She does, and claps her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out because that, that's Piper in her Silver Dragon suit, and is that Leo in _Spandex?_ It has to be, no one else would wear a flame pattern like that, and... "Do you know what's going on?" she asks Robin, trying not to cry. 

Robin shakes her head. "I don't think anyone knows," she replies. "But that looks an awful lot like an alien invasion." 

Audrey laughs a bit hysterically because Robin is right, those _are_ aliens, there's nothing else they could be, there are aliens _invading New York_ , and what is this, a sci-fi movie? 

They sit in stunned silence, or almost silence—"Holy shit, is that Captain America?" "I don't know, but—look, there's Iron Man!"—as the two of them realize that the world's been turned upside down. Audrey's trying not to cry, because she's seven months pregnant and her daughter is at school (and oh god Helena must be terrified right now) and she can see her son and her quasi-daughter on screen fighting goddamn _aliens_ and she just _knows_ her husband is right in the middle of the battle. And then—

 _—Why is Piper flying_ away _from the battle? What did she just—_

—and that. _That_ is a bomb. Someone just tried to _nuke_ New York City to end the invasion. Piper has a _nuclear weapon_ on her back and she's—

—she's flying the nuke through the wormhole, and Audrey wants to puke, but she can't look away, even for a second. 

All action on the screen stops. It seems like the entire world is holding its breath. For thirty-two and a half seconds—the longest thirty-two and a half seconds of her life—Piper is gone. 

And then Piper falls back to Earth, and Hulk catches her (Audrey reminds herself to send him cookies once he's back to human) and the battle is over and the clean up begins.

* * *

It's not a pair of agents in uniform on her doorstep but a call on the house phone that makes her heart stop. 

"Audrey," Nick Fury says without preamble, "you're needed at Bethesda. Your husband is in a coma." 

She wastes no time in grabbing her go-bag and driving to Helena's school, idly noticing that her speed is _very_ impressive for a pregnant woman. 

"Helena," Audrey tells her once the secretary delivers her to the right door, "grab your things. We'll be on the next flight to D. C." 

Lena knows that tone. They're at their gate at PDX as soon as traffic and security permits. America and Canada are no-fly zones at the moment, save for a few sanctioned flights, but that's not a problem—Nick is having them hitch a ride on the same government plane that's picking up the governors of Washington and Oregon. 

Helena sleeps on the plane, however cramped it may be. Audrey wishes she could. It's hard to be awestruck by a man who sleeps with his mouth open and snores like an elephant, but Governor Gregoire intimidates her for the first few minutes of conversation, at least until Audrey relaxes. 

Fury himself (she can't think of him as Nick when he looks that imposing) meets them at the airport. 

"Is Dad going to be okay?" Helena asks immediately. 

"I don't know, sweetheart," he tells her softly. To Audrey, he says, "He was stabbed in the chest before the battle started. He went into surgery almost immediately. It took a lot of work, and he's in a medically-induced coma, but he'll pull through. Hopefully." 

The person at the front desk waves them through. Every hospital within a certain radius of New York is being reserved for those injured during the battle, save for emergency cases, Nick tells her. 

Piper is in the room next to Phil for observation. Leo is sitting next to her, as always, flipping through the channels. Helena runs straight up to him and scrambles into his lap. 

"So, what _were_ you thinking?" Audrey leans on the doorframe and crosses her arms. 

Piper looks at her steadily. "I did what I had to do." She shrugs. "I knew Tony wouldn't make it through the wormhole and back in time, so..." 

"How are you doing?" 

"Eh... I'm still sore, but apparently I was dead for like forty-five seconds—"

"Longest forty-five seconds of my life," Leo puts in helpfully. 

"—so I guess being sore is normal," Piper finishes, ignoring Leo. 

Audrey kisses the top of her head. "I'm going to check on Phil, okay?" 

"Okay."

* * *

The first time she meets Tristan McLean, she slaps him, and then she apologizes, because just a second ago he was frantically harassing a nurse, looking for his daughter, and she finds it hard to hate a man that's that panicked. 

"Come on, I'll show you to her room." He hesitates; she inclines her head. "Come on!" 

"Hey, Dad!" Piper says cheerfully. 

"Hey, Pipes. I came as fast as I could. LAX was down for a while, that's why it took me so long." Mr. McLeans drops his bag on the floor and crosses to her bed. "How are you feeling?" he asks hesitantly. This man is a far cry from the cold, distant father Piper's told her about. 

Out of all the people Piper could have called in those last few minutes, she chose to call her dad. Audrey knows that, but she still resents him. Leo has Helena take her to the cafeteria before she decides to slap Mr. McLean a second time.

* * *

Adelaide Esperanza Philippa Nathan comes screaming into the world on July 25th. The doctors bring Phil out of his coma just long enough to say hello to his daughter via Skype before they put him back under. 

It's around this time, as well, that Piper finally cottons on to the whole "running a revolution" thing. "I just can't believe it," she says, bouncing Adelaide on her lap and peppering her with kisses. "I guess maybe now we actually stand a fighting chance." 

"You know it's going to be hard, right?" Audrey's voice is soft. "It's going to be the hardest thing you've ever done. Are you _absolutely sure_ that you're up to it?"

Piper nods, hesitantly. 

Audrey makes grabby motions. "Good. Now give me my baby." 

* * *

"Does Phil know that you're sending his kids undercover?" Audrey cradles the phone with her shoulder while she holds Adelaide, who's busy with lunch. 

Nick's low chuckle crackles in her ear. "Do you honestly want me to wake him up just to tell him that?" 

"They're not even official agents, Nick!" she snaps. "Ouch! _Addy!"_

"Actually, they are," he informs her. "They earned their badges after the Battle of New York. Well, _probationary_ badges," he amends. "Full agents have to at least have graduated from Junior."

"And you can't send anyone else?" 

"The op is based at an alternative school," he says patiently. "Anyone older would be found out sooner or later, whether or not they can pass for teenagers at first." 

Audrey groans. "Ugh. I hate this." 

"Do you mean worrying about your kids, or having an infant attached to your breast?" 

_"Both,"_ she says fervently, and the subject changes. 

Just as they finish saying their goodbyes, Audrey pauses. "Hey," she says. "Thanks for keeping me in the loop, okay?" 

"No problem, Ms. Nathan," Nick says, and then he hangs up.

* * *

"What do you mean, Leo and Piper are missing?" Audrey demands. 

"I mean exactly what I said," Natasha tells her calmly. "They went on a school trip to the Grand Canyon and vanished while they were there." 

"Has JARVIS been able to contact them?" she asks. "Or have they turned their earbuds off?" _Or gotten rid of them, or had them taken away,_ she thinks but doesn't say out loud. 

"He has. They're safe," she tells her. 

She breathes a sigh of relief. 

"But they're not telling him what's happened." 

Audrey's back becomes ramrod straight again. "I swear, if those kids have decided to go haring off on their own again..." 

Natasha has the audacity to laugh at her.

* * *

So apparently the Greek gods are real. Also, Leo and Piper did _not_ go haring off on their own; they got called to save the world. Again. 

Good to know. 

In the meantime, Audrey has other things to worry about, like the fact that Tony just gave out his address on live television. She isn't sure what he was thinking, only that he wasn't. Predictably, it come back to bite him in the ass. 

Less predictably, it's his mansion in Malibu that gets blown up (in an apparent act of terrorism, no less), not Tony himself. 

She only follows the news coverage closely enough to find out that the President has been kidnapped, that Tony Stark is alive, that the President has been rescued and returned to the White House, and that the Vice President has been arrested on charges of treason. It's a huge scandal, and Audrey is right on the edge of it, geographically, since she's sitting watch at Phil's bedside as the doctors bring him out of his coma for the last time. 

"Hey," he croaks at her. 

"Hey," she says, and kisses him. 

"Just remember," the doctor warns, "don't do anything that will get him too excited." 

As soon as the doctor leaves, she smiles at her husband wickedly. "Sooo... did anyone tell you about the stunt Piper pulled during the Battle of New York?" 

"No. Why? Should I know?" 

She tells him, enjoying the glower that takes over his face. He fumbles for his phone; she hands him hers. 

"PIPER _QUINN_ MCLEAN, YOU ARE _GROUNDED_ FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!"

 **2013**

Leo and Piper have to sneak out of camp to go to their own graduation. Audrey and the girls attend, and hug the two graduates hard enough to never let go because they honestly don't know when they'll be together like this again. 

"Oh, hey, did I tell you? I got into Sci-Tech!" Leo exclaims. _"And_ I'm going to be assigned to field work after I graduate, which means that I have to take classes at the Ops Academy too, which means that Piper and me get to share a dorm again!" 

"Piper and I," Audrey corrects gently. Phil hobbles over on the cane he pretends to need more than he actually does. 

He frowns and mock-pouts when Leo asks him how physical therapy is going. "You're not allowed to die," Leo tells him, pointing meaningfully at the scar on Phil's chest, prompting more grumbles. 

They have to go back to camp eventually, though, and Audrey watches them go, and hopes that they'll come back to her when the summer ends.

* * *

_Holy shit, I'm in the throne room of Olympus,_ Audrey barely has time to think before Piper is hugging her and sobbing into her shirt. 

"Hey. You okay?" Audrey asks her, because it's not like Piper to just start crying like this. 

_"Leo,"_ Piper whispers brokenly, and Audrey can feel the weight of the world crashing down around her.

* * *

Introductions are made all around. Phil and Audrey meet and duly terrify Piper's new boyfriend. 

Suddenly a _very_ familiar voice calls, "Hey, Princess, did you miss me?" 

Piper shoves Adelaide into Audrey's arms, turns on her heel, and screams, "LEONARDO _TESLA_ VALDEZ, I AM GOING TO _KILL YOU!"_

She barely sees them move across the floor, but suddenly they're hugging and she can just _see_ the tension flowing out of them. 

_"Mom! Dad!"_

Equally suddenly she has an armful of Latino Santa's elf and she's crying into his hair and patting him all over and making sure that he's _real_. Phil is there, and they're all crammed together, and Helena wriggles into the embrace with them. 

"Sorry about that. Leo just _really_ missed his parents," she hears Piper telling the young woman Leo's brought with him. Audrey looks up to see Piper dragging her and that strange metal suitcase across the floor towards them. "Come on. Coulson family special." 

The girl reluctantly joins the hug. Audrey takes a moment to revel in her family being alive and safe and together, if only for a moment. 

"So, what's your name?" she asks Leo's—girlfriend? Yeah, girlfriend, she knows that look—bouncing Adelaide to keep her from fussing. 

"Calypso," she says, but Leo calls her "Sunshine," and looks at her like she's all the sun he needs. 

"If you break his heart," Phil says mildly, "no one will ever find your body." 

She nods. "I understand." 

He hugs her. "Then welcome to the family."

* * *

What's surprising is that Calypso decides to join SHIELD as well, and go to the Communications Academy. 

What isn't surprising is when Melinda calls Audrey and tells her that she's putting together a field team for Phil, designed specifically for the chance that something went wrong during his recovery and his body or mind start to fail. 

"Find a way to get Leo on the team," she tells her without hesitation. "He knows Phil better than anyone else." 

True to her word, Melinda brings Leo, Piper, and Calypso on as "mythology experts" after the Battle of Greenwich. They don't stay on, but they're there long enought that Leo can confirm Phil's stability. 

After a student is attacked at the school Leo goes to—there's more to it than that, though Audrey isn't privy to the details—the three join the team on a permanent basis. The ever-present threat of SHIELD's enemy within is still there, but things are looking up, and life goes on. 

**2014**

The call goes out on a Wednesday morning. Audrey reads the text silently before telling Lena to get Addy and the go-bags. 

They've drilled for this. They know what to do. Audrey drives them out to the drop site where the girls are getting picked up. She hugs and kisses them one last time before they get onto a commandeered bus. 

Then she goes home to an empty house, and she waits.

* * *

In an eerie parallel, Robin is once again pounding on her door in the early afternoon. This time, she notices the silence when they sit to turn the T. V. on, and asks where the girls are. Audrey makes up a non-answer about a party or something. Robin seems to accept that. 

Audrey watches the footage of the helicarriers crashing into the Potomac with the same calm detachment she's used to get through the last two days, ever since Nick was attacked and Exodus went active. 

The newscasters are calling it SquidGate. They seem to be condemning HYDRA unilaterally, but they're much more hesitant about condemning SHIELD itself, to Audrey's relief.

* * *

Marcus Daniels is stalking her once again, and a woman is yelling at her to get in the car. This must be Simmons, the British biochemist. They take her to a safe house—safe apartment, really—with gray walls and blinds on the windows. 

"Phil never lied to me," she says, and the British woman and the black man stiffen, while Leo and Calypso hide smirks. 

"Phil?" Simmons says, sounding like it's a question. 

"Agent Phillip Coulson. In fact..." She looks around, knowing he must be talking to them somehow. Leo hands her his comm over Simmons's and the black man's squawks and she fits it to her ear. "Hello, Agent Handsome," she croons. 

"Hello, Miss Beautiful," he replies. "We're on our way up." 

A minute later, the door opens, and that's _her husband_ striding towards her, and even with the danger and the fear and the tension outside these walls, she feels like she's in a romantic comedy when he kisses her, slow and sweet. 

_"What,"_ the black man says flatly (she really needs to find out his name), but Leo is covering his eyes and going "NOPE!" and covering Calypso's eyes as well, although she's watching through his fingers and smiling. 

"Care to explain?" asks the young man with curly hair who followed Phil in. By the Scottish accent, this has to be... "You're Fitz, right? And that's Simmons, and I don't know your name." 

She shrugs at their expressions. "Phil's told me about you. And, of course, I've met Leo and Calypso before. You haven't broken too many bones, right?" she asks him. 

"Audrey, you're no fun," he whines. 

"Of course not, I'm never any fun," Audrey tells him. 

Phil interrupts. "Fitz, Simmons, Trip. Meet my wife, Audrey Nathan." He kisses the top her head. "Mother of my four children. Three children? Nah, let's go with four, Piper counts as much as our legal kids do." 

"Phil, you're ruining the moment," Audrey chides. 

She's set up to draw Daniels out, and it's the most terrifying moment of her life, being seemingly alone with him when she knows exactly what he's capable of and her only weapon is a cello. 

Once again, though, Phil and his team come to her rescue, destroying Daniels for good with a weapon that she probably shouldn't ask about. Afterwards, of course, the team has to leave and go back to their current base, where they've left Piper and the rest of the team to hold down the fort. 

(It turns out one of the teammates left behind is HYDRA. Melinda nail-guns his foot to the floor. Audrey has never been prouder.)

* * *

The comedians and the talk-show hosts seem to be coming to the same conclusions as the public: that most SHIELD agents didn't know about HYDRA, that the government as a whole—not just SHIELD—should be held accountable, and that SHIELD is going to permanently disband as the dust settles. 

And then Leo and Piper drag them to a meeting. 

It's a private one, if a bit large, with easily a thousand people, packed into an auditorium not far from Avengers Tower. Audrey thinks she recognizes some of the people there, as people she met in the course of Piper and Leo building the Exodus Protocol. 

There are _a lot_ of speeches, and Audrey's almost dozed off when Piper takes the stage. _Now_ she's wide awake. It's hard not to gasp in horror, as Piper dances around what _really_ happened in Oaxaca, and lays out everything that's happened since: wars and battles and hard-earned victories, far too many lives lost and too many secrets broken. The middle-aged man (whose name tag says "Hello! My name is Paul!") sitting next to her actually _does_ gasp, looking stricken, until the black-haired boy (his son?) on his other side leans over and whispers something in his ear. 

When Piper's done, she surreptitiously wipes tears from her eyes and turns to walk away from the podium. She doesn't look back, even when someone a few rows over stands up and shouts, "Now what?" 

Audrey watches as Piper stops to speak to a man in a wheelchair, sitting at the back of the stage; then he gently pushes her, herding her back to the podium as someone else brings Leo forward. When they stand together at the front of the stage, holding hands for comfort, the audience bursts into cheers. 

"I... I guess I can take a few questions," Piper says into the microphone, and dozens of people all start shouting at once. Piper gets them to quiet down, somehow, and points to one person, and Audrey can _see_ her getting more confident by the second. 

She picks out a few things, like _isolation_ and _treaties_ and _What would the Framers say?_ , but most of it is stuff she has no context for, and Phil and the girls (sitting on her right) and Paul (to her left) look equally lost. Then suddenly there's talk of forming a council, to keep "this sort of thing"—whatever 'this' is—from happening again, and then people are getting up and walking around, talking to each other and making dozens of phone calls, as if gathering a consensus. 

Once everyone's back in their seats, the man in the wheelchair says into the microphone, "Nominations for the proposed interim council are now open." Someone tries to nominate Paul's son, but he shuts that down with a loud "NOPE!" Others—whose ages range from Helena's to that of Audrey's grandmother—are nominated in turn. Some accept; some don't. 

"I'd like to nominate Piper McLean as the chair of that council," someone says loudly, just before the nominations close. Almost before the sentence is out, it's seconded. 

"All in favor, say _aye!_ " someone else shouts, and the crowd of people shouts _"Aye!"_ in return. 

For the second time, Piper is herded back to the stage, Leo right behind her. Then the boy sitting on Paul's other side stands up and calls, "I'd like to nominate Leo Valdez as the _vice_ -chair of that council!" Leo looks humorously offended, and Audrey has a split-second to wonder if they know each other before the motion is seconded, voted on, and carried. 

When the shouting and debating is over, something resembling a government has been formed, with Piper and Leo as the interim president and vice-president; Audrey is glad she's sitting down, because screw Melinda nail-gunning Ward, _this_ is her proudest moment. 

Piper stares down, twiddling her thumbs, until she takes a deep breath and looks up. "Cousins," she says, and the crowd goes silent, "this may just be the scariest thing I've ever done." 

The crowd chuckles. 

"I won't lie: We've had a long, hard decade. It's going to take _years_ to rebuild; it's going to take time and money that _we don't have._

"But you know what we _do_ have? 

"We have each other. We have our families, of blood and of choice." Her eyes flicker to Phil and Audrey for a second. "A hell of a lot of people are dead, but _we_ are still alive. _We have a future, now._ The Wars are over and it's time to _live_ , not just for our sake but for the sake of those we've lost and those they died protecting. 

"This is our world," she says, "and we are damned if we let it fall."

* * *

In the end, when the dust settles, not much changes. 

She's still Audrey Nathan, cellist, mother of four—five, now, after she and Phil adopt one of Phil's coworkers—and wife and mother of agents of SHIELD. The world is still a dangerous place, but hope is running rampant, and things are getting better. 

Everything to do with the new government—which Audrey learns is of, by, and for people with powers ("preters," apparently, is the preferred term) and their families, all around the world—is done quietly, with no hint of it except in places where the supernatural is an open secret, in hidden enclaves and otherwise unremarkable small towns. 

The Exodus kids come home after four weeks, just as quietly, other than a brief statement that they were relocated for their own safety during the HYDRA uprising. Some conspiracy theories pop up and then fade away, as the world moves on to more interesting things.

After four months, Leo and Piper's temporary positions become permanent, at least for the next five years. The supernatural world forms its new government around _her kids,_ now seventeen years old and ready for anything, even if Audrey still sees them as knock-kneed eleven-year-olds waiting for their next growth spurt. 

In the end, really, nothing essentially changes. 

She still has callouses on her hands from of life of playing the cello. She's still the wife and mother of agents of SHIELD (although her husband is now the Director, and she _has_ to stop forgetting that). 

The world is still a dangerous place, but hope is running rampant, and life goes on.

**Author's Note:**

> My apologies to John Kitzhaber. I'm sure he doesn't actually snore like an elephant. 
> 
> Fic title: "[She's Somebody's Hero](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYF_C80wSng)," by Jamie O'Neal.
> 
> As always, shameless plug for my current fic, [When We Come Alive](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5267195/chapters/18349783), and my latest fic, [On The Road Again](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10766436).
> 
> As you read in the beginning notes, I rewrote the last scene so it would fit with the fic I'm almost done with. Here's the link to the original scene: [Dust and Gold, Chapter One](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14608050/chapters/33763281).


End file.
